Lena Dunham: The Voice of a Generation

Lena Dunham is a Woman of the Year because..."She's incredibly brave, curious, and engaged…and she happened to hit on something universal. I will be tuning in forevermore." --actress and friend Claire Danes

Dunham in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. (The tattoo on her shoulder is a bull in a field with flowers, a scene from the children's book The Story of Ferdinand.)

Lena Dunham, the immensely likable 26-year-old force behind the year's most-talked-about television debut, HBO's Girls, just wants to double-check that she is, in fact, a Glamour Woman of the Year. "I was in People's Most Beautiful of the Year' issue," she says, laughing, "but there was just an interview with me on another page—I was not a Most Beautiful Person.' They duped me!" But there's no duping here: Dunham, who came to the entertainment world's attention with her 2010 indie film Tiny Furniture (made at age 23!), has become one of the most powerful women in Hollywood since the April premiere of her show, which she—deep breath—created, stars in, and also directs.

The Emmy-nominated comedy follows the lives of four twentysomething women making their way in New York City, unsexy stumbles and all. "TV and movies never fully captured the day-to-day sensation of being me," Dunham says, "and I figured I couldn't be the only person who felt that way." That was the inspiration behind Girls' raw tone—her first season dealt with subjects like bad sex, abortion, and job struggles. (Remember when Dunham's character got high and tried to convince her parents to pay her bills so she could write? "I think that I may be the voice of my generation," she said. "Or at least a voice…of a generation.") The show debuted to Monday morning chatter and serious critical love: "It's raw, audacious, nuanced, and richly, often excruciatingly funny," wrote Time's James Poniewozik; and Salon's Willa Paskin called it "smart…accurately absurd, confessional yet self-aware." Women saw themselves on-screen—and with dialogue like "I have been dating someone who treats my heart like it's monkey meat," they heard themselves too.

Dunham grew up in New York City, the daughter of photographer Laurie Simmons and painter Carroll Dunham. She's got a Twitter following of more than 370,000, and die-hard fans. Says Emma Watson: "I'm obsessed.… She's, like, my favorite person in the world." Dunham also signed a book deal for a reported $3.5 million. We say she's worth it. For real.